Evolve an organism
at least 30 steps using Evolve Breed. (You should try to make your
selection in a consistent way. It may help to imagine an environment
and how the structures you see will help the organism survive.)

Copy and paste
it into your word processing file as #1. You can also just print
it if that is easier, but label it #1 and with your name.

Add a short
sentence saying what you were looking for when you made your
selection and say how many generations you evolved your organism.
(If you makes sure Fossil History under the Fossils menu is
checked, and you hit new history when starting each of your
organisms this will keep track of the number of generations for
you.)

Save your
organisms using File Save As. You will not hand these files in, but
you will need it for number 7 below.

2. Add color and 3 more
genes:

Start with the
Bacterium again. (Use File Open then choose bacterium).

Go the Genes
Special Genes Menu and turn on mutation for body color and three
other genes (check the boxes). Record which other three you turn
on in your answer.

Evolve an organism
at least 30 steps using Evolve Breed. (You should try to make your
selection in a consistent way. It may help to imagine an environment
and how the structures you see will help the organism survive.)

Copy and paste
it into your word processing file as #2. You can also just print
it if that is easier, but label it #2 and with your name.

Add a short
sentence saying what you were looking for when you made your
selection and say how many generations you evolved your organism.

Save your organisms using File Save As. You will not hand these
files in, but you will need it for number 7 below.

3. Make a fossil
history.

Makes sure Fossil
History under the Fossils menu is checked and hit new history.

when starting
each of your organisms Look at your fossil history (before you
quit!). Start with the Bacterium again. (Use File Open then choose
bacterium). Go the Genes Special Genes Menu and turn on mutation for
body color and three new genes (check the boxes and uncheck the ones
you had checked for number 2). Record which other three you turn
on in your answer.

Evolve an organism
at least 30 steps using Evolve Breed. (You should try to make your
selection in a consistent way. It may help to imagine an environment
and how the structures you see will help the organism survive.)

Copy and paste
it into your word processing file as #3. You can also just print
it if that is easier, but label it #3 and with your name.

Add a short
sentence saying what you were looking for when you made your
selection and say how many generations you evolved your organism.

Go to Fossils
Fossil History. Either copy each page in the fossil history and
paste it into your answer or print it out.
Make sure you do this before you quit. Fossil histories are not
saved, when you save your organism.

Save your
organisms using File Save As. You will not hand these files in, but
you will need it for number 7 below.

4. Questions on Fossil
History from #3

a. How
many times in that history would you say there were new species?

Circle, Mark or
otherwise identify on your fossil history each place you think
there is a new species, .beginning with the bacterium and ending
with the final organism?

b. How did you
choose these points? What does it mean to say that these are
separate species, according to the theory of evolution? How does
this differ from the definition of a species for contemporaneous
populations?

c. Could you
tell that it was each stage you identified was a news species at
the moment you evolved it? Is being a member of a certain species a
property that a population has in virtue its existence or properties
at any one moment? Explain. (You may want to peek at Dennett
Chapter 4 to help answer these questions.)

5: Drift:

Start with the
Bacterium again

Go the the Evolve
Engineer

Click in the white
space near your organism. When you do the organism will change
randomly. This is the same as if you made your choices randomly in
breeding. Click this about 30 times or hit the repeat button to let
it run a while on its own.

Copy
and paste it into your word processing file as #5. You can also
just print it if that is easier, but label it #5 and with your name.

aIs it as
interesting as the ones you evolved? b. Why doesn't drift produce
significant evolution?

6. Saltation (Hopeful
monster)

Start with the
Bacterium again

Go the the Evolve
Engineer

Try Saltation
(hopeful monster) a couple times? (click on the Hopeful button on
the top right)

Copy
and paste it into your word processing file as #6. You can also
just print it if that is easier, but label it #6 and with your name.

a. What is
saltation? (Look it up or look in the index of Dennett) b. If an
organism is relatively well suited to its environment, what will
saltation do to that adaptation? c. What does this show about how
large mutations could have been involved in evolution?

7. Exploring Gene
Space:

Use the Triangle
menu to put the bacterium at the top of the triangle, and your
organism from Number 3 at one of the other corners and your first
organism at the other corner. You do this by reloading each organism
using File Open then copying them and then using the Paste to
command to paste them to one of the points on the Triangle.

Explore the design
space between the bacterium and your organism #3. What is this
space? What are you looking at when you move your mouse and make
different organisms appear?

Copy the Screen
and paste it into your answer, or print it out.

Is the sequence of
organisms the same as your fossil history? Why not? How is the path
taken by evolution different than the path you take from the
bacterium to your organism on the triangle?

Explore the space
around the path between the bacterium and your organism. Are there
other interesting organisms nearby? Are they biologically possible
according to Dennett? What does that mean?

8. Try doing some
genetic engineering.

Start with
the Bacterium again

Go the the Evolve
Engineer

Above your
organism are a line of numbers representing each of the genes. You
can change them manually be right or left clicking on them to
increase or decrease the values. Try to engineer one of the three
organism you evolved in 1, 2, or 3.

Copy
and paste your best attempt into your word processing file as #8.
Make sure you say whether it is an attempt at 1, 2 or 3. You
can also just print it if that is easier.

Figure out what
at least 3 of the first 6 genes from the left do, and write them
down.